News coverage of Calif gang-rape victim: “Church Going Honor Student”

October 29, 2009

The victim of last weekend's brutal gang rape at her homecoming dance was a devout Christian who attended church three times a week and whose friends say had been looking forward to the homecoming dance for weeks.

Curious that any journalist would find this angle worthy of reporting. I guess it's a good thing that she wasn't an atheist and average student, huh? Would that change the circumstances, or make the rape any less tragic or horrific?

The comments posted here remind me of a cutaway from an episode of the TV cartoon Family Guy. There’s a schoolbus crash and an offical tells reporters that one child, “Becky Gunderson”, did not survive. The official then corrects himself, saying “oh, sorry - it’s Becky Guttierez”. The reporters then walk away disgruntled, saying “that’s not news!”

Certain ethnic and religious characteristics do, in fact, make a victim more sympathetic to a particular audience. I surmise the reporter included it because for many people it made the child more sympathetic and the crime more heinous…a fact which is frightening and disturbing.

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Benjamin Radford, M.Ed., is a scientific paranormal investigator, a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, deputy editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, and author or co-author of seven books and over a thousand articles on skepticism, critical thinking, and science literacy. His newest book is Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment. Radford is also a columnist for Discovery News and LiveScience.com.